Make the building form and attach templatesto the crosspieces. Nail a strip down the cen-

ter to hold the stems and templates in position.

Redwood strips are tacked to the templates,and edge-glued. Drive brads through into the

templates before putting on fiberglass doth.

prototype canoe took about three weekendsto build. She's broad of beam and flatbot-tomed amidship. Two persons can sit sideby side in the center, with one person ateach end and plenty of room for gear.

This canoe is formed around plywoodtemplates using ¼"-by-¾" redwood strips,glued edge to edge. You lay up the strips,remove the form, and the canoe is com-plete, except for fiberglassing and puttingin the seats.

How to start. First, lay out the patternsfull size on large sheets of heavy brownwrapping paper. Since a canoe is sym-metrical front to back and side to side,you need draw full-scale patterns of onlyhalf of each template, forming half of thecanoe. The patterns are flopped to drawthe other half of each template; duplicatetemplates are made from these for theother half of the canoe. Draw the templatepatterns using a 1½" grid as shown in theblueprint.

Build the form from four two-by-fours.Make it square, solid, and level; the finishedcanoe will be no better than the form it'smade on. If built as shown, it can be con-verted into a bench for working on thecanoe right side up.

Cut the templates from ½" plywood andscrew them to the building form. Makesure they are centered and vertical. Put ontemplates 1 and 9 first; then stretch astring over the center of these between theends. This lets you line up the other tem-plates. Next, make the canoe's stempieces

172 POPULAR SCIENCE

and set them in place on the frame. Gluetwo pieces of white pine together for eachstem, and trace the lines from the full-sizedrawing on each. Bevel each piece to ac-cept the redwood side strips. Tie togetherthe stempieces and the templates with a¾"-square strip of wood.

Next, rip the longer straight-grain red-wood planks (see Materials List) into strips¾" wide. You need about 70 of thesestrips to make the canoe hull.

Before planking the hull, put maskingtape along the edge of each template tokeep glue from sticking to it. Start plankingat the gunwales, using ¾" No. 18 brads to

Reinforcing strips are put on each stem afterthe hull gets Its first coat of resin. Hull is

then covered with two layers of glass and resin.5

21

Hull is placed in tilted position on the build-ing form for easy working on inside. Only one

layer of cloth and resin is needed on Inside.

Finishing touches include adding gunwales,inwales, seats, yoke, and breast plates. You

weave seats with webbing as shown in blueprint

nail each strip to the templates. Place thestrips so that the ¼" width forms the thick-ness of the hull. Don't nail the strips to theendpieces yet.

After each strip is nailed in place, putElmer's Glue-All along its edge. As youlay each strip in place, hold it firmly againstthe strip below and nail it to each plywoodtemplate.

Do this until you have three or fourstrips on each side in place. Then cut eachstrip off ½" beyond the stempieces. Witha sharp knife, cut the inside of the stripsto an angle that lets them meet in a point

beyond the stempieces. Glue them withresorcinol and nail them with ¾" coppernails.

A little ingenuity is needed to clamp theends of the strips tight. A large rubber band(cut from an old inner tube) tightenedwith a stick through one end does a goodjob.

When you have added about 19 strips oneach side, the twist at each end gets prettybad. Clamps, shown in photos, hold them.

When about 25 are on, the strips meetalong the keel. Cut them to meet in astaggered line along the keel.

[See lie-flat blueprint on the following two pages. Text continued on page 200]

Bevel strips so they meet in front of stem.A tight fit is not necessary, since the stems

are covered with two layers of cloth and resin.

Clamping jigs hold the stnps in place when youreach the point where twist gets bad. Scraps

from the beveled stem make good clamping pads.3 4

6 7

CHANGEFORM TO

BENCH FORWORKINGINSIDECANOE

RAG PADS

2" x 4" x 20"

2"x 8 x 24"

¾" REDWOODSTRIPS STAGGERED

AT KEEL

5

89

.625" x 1" x 5"ALUMINUM

CUT OFF EXCESSAFTER

LEVELINGSEAT

COUNTERSINKNUT

4 NUTS

¼" DIA. x 6"BRASS ROD

THREADEDBOTH ENDS

WEBBING

SEAT½" - 4

RH SCREW

MATERIALS4 pieces 2" x 4" x 16' straight-grain fir

¼" x .125" x 2¼"ALUMINUM

12"

15"

¼" DOWELS

14½"

18"

18"

¾" x 4" OAK

ROUND EDGES

34¼"

1½"

2" SQUARES

4"

YOKE¾" x 4" OAK

16"

14" 54" 32" 14"

36"

1 panel 4' x 8' x ½" fir plywood1 panel 4' x 4' x ½" fir plywood2 pieces 1" x 12" x 17' or 18' straight-grained redwood

(cut in ¼" strips)1 piece 1" x 10" x 14' straight-grained redwood

(cut in ¼" strips)1 piece 1" x 12" x 7' clear white pine1 piece 1" x 4" x 15' oak1 piece 1" x 10" x 2' oak1 piece 1'' x 10" x 2' oak3 gallons polyester or epoxy resin11 yards 7½ ounce, 60" wide glass cloth16-ounce bottle quick-setting glue (Elmer's Glue-All)1 pint waterproof glue (resorcinol)15 yards webbing for seatsNails, screws, sandpaper

1½" SQUARES

STEMCUT FROM TWO

PIECES 1" x 12" x 22"PINE GLUEDTOGETHER

¾" SQ. STRlP(TEMPORARY)

MOLDFRAMES

PLYWOOD½"

1½"

2

3

4

1

20"

24"2" x 4"s

18"

14½"

24"2" x 4"s

1"

¼"

V

.375" x ¾"OAK

.375" - 6 F.H.BRASSBOLTS

EVERY 10"

¼" x ¾"RED

WOOD

1"- 8 FHBRASS SCREWS

EVERY 18"

¾"

¾"OAK

KEEL

10°

BREAST PLATESBOTTOM

½"

10½"

TOP

10"

¾" OAK

#10 - 32BRASS

MACHINESCREWS (4)

18"

18"

18"

18"

18"

5

6

Redwood Canoe You Can Build[Continued from page 173]

When all strips are in place, sand thehull and give the outside a coat of poly-ester or epoxy resin. When this has set,make a thin-point nail set and punch allnails in each strip through, into the form.

Cover the outside with glass cloth andanother coat of resin. Start at the centerand work the cloth toward each end. Afew staples hold it while you apply the resin.

Use inexpensive paintbrushes to applythe resin. Wear rubber gloves, and use asqueegee to work the resin through fiber-glass. After the first coat of resin, fit anextra strip of fiberglass at each end to over-lap about 2" on each side.

When the resin is set, sand the roughspots and apply the second coat. Two coatsof cloth and resin should be enough.

Removing the templates. After the out-side is finished, take out the screws thathold the, templates to the form, and care-fully remove the templates. To do this,push them toward the larger part of thehull. Turn the canoe right side up on thebuilding form to work on the inside.

Sand the inside and coat it with resin.Shape and attach the keel before glassing

and finishing the interior. The blueprintshows how to change the building form tohold the canoe at an angle; it makes work-ing inside easier.

Cover only half of the inside at a time.This lets you overlap the glass at the centerfor more strength. Before putting in thefull-length glass cloth, work some left-overpieces in at the stems.

You can cut 60" -wide cloth in halfand staple the selvage about ¾" over thecenter line so that the keel screws are cov-ered. Work it up the sides and towardeach end. A few staples may be neededalong the top edge until the resin is on;they may then be pulled out. One layer ofresin and cloth is enough inside.

When the resin is set, trim off the excessglass cloth. Attach tho gunwales and in-wales with either screws or bolts,

Build and varnish the seats, breast plates,and yoke, and fasten them in place.

These plans let you build a 13' canoe,too. You build it the same way, but youeliminate templates 4 and 5, making tem-plate 6 the center of the hull. Nothing elseneed be changed.